denny Schools Periods & Styles book

This film footage was taken by anthropologist Robert Garfias in the village of Nuling (now Barangay Simuay), Sultan Kudarat, Mindanao island in 1966. Its of Maguindanaon women playing a kulintang ensemble, which is an ancient gong-drum ensemble music of the southern Philippines, first recorded by the Spanish during their arrival in the mid-1500s, and has survived since. It is believed to have come from further south and had taken root in the region over a gradual period of time. The traditional gong-ensemble music of the lowland natives of Luzon and the Visayas during the Spanish arrival was not the kulintang, but the 'Agung ensemble', today maintained by the Lumad peoples of Mindanao, the Mangyan tribes of Mindoro and the Suludnon people of inland Panay island. Although Garfias originally labelled this video as that of a "Duyug", this piece corresponds more to a Binalig a Bagu in the Ilud style of the Maguindanaon areas near Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat (Noted by the use of only one Agong, as well as its distinctive playing style, the Raya style of the hinterland Maguindanaon on the other hand, uses two agongs). The Kulintang ensemble is called Palabunibunyian (or Palabunian by Raya Maguindanaon), or Basalen. Kulintang is closely related to the Agung ensemble, as well as Kulintangan/Kolintang ensembles played in neighbouring Sulu, Borneo, Timor & (archaically) Sulawesi. It is also distantly related to Gamelan of Java and Bali, and Piphat/Pinpeat Ensembles of Thailand ...